


Smiling Face

by Musical_Fandom



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Kinda, M/M, No Dialogue, Short One Shot, Temporary Character Death, happy? ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29666493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musical_Fandom/pseuds/Musical_Fandom
Summary: Akechi was always smiling. He smiled until his face hurt, until it meant absolutely nothing but he kept going.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro & Persona 5 Protagonist, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Kudos: 14





	Smiling Face

Akechi was always smiling. He smiled until his face hurt, until it meant absolutely nothing but he kept going. He needed to smile for the masses, to keep them happy. He needed to smile for his revenge no matter how much he hated it. It all had a greater purpose. He would suck it up if it allowed him to get even an inch closer to plunging the knife in Shido. So he smiled and continued to smile day after day.

When Akechi met Akira, he realized that he didn't know what a real smile was like. It had been so long that he'd forgotten what it really meant. Slowly, Akira taught him. The longer he spent with Akira, the less it hurt. He didn't need to fake his smile around Akira. He didn't need to wear one for his satisfaction yet he still found himself smiling at the very thought of the boy. No matter how much he tried to snuff out the weakness that was building in him, he couldn't stop the warm feeling that bloomed in his chest when he was around him.

Finding out Akira was the leader of the Phantom Thieves was like a knife to the chest. A deep sense of betrayal overwhelmed his rational mind. He was angry and hurt yet he still smiled. He needed to keep up appearances. Akechi continued to smile even when he found out he'd be the one enacting the plan he pitched to Shido. He smiled when he betrayed his only friend. He smiled when he put a bullet in his head.

Akechi smiled after Akira was gone. He smiled for the cameras and the masses just as he always had. Anything to get closer to Shido. Anything for his revenge. When he got home at night, he broke. He couldn't keep smiling. He couldn't keep telling himself that it was worth it but he had put too much time and ruined too many lives to back out now. He needed to see things through to the end. So, when he went out again, he continued to smile.

In Shido's ship, Akechi found Akira alive and well. Not really, he wasn't well at all. Akechi could see through it, he recognized the pained movements that still managed to best him. When they fought, Akechi was done with the fake smiles. He was done with everything. He just wanted it all to end. He wanted to finally get his revenge that he'd worked so long for.

Akechi was done smiling when he laid defeated on the floor. He was done pleasing the masses. When his cognitive self put a bullet through his ribs with a distorted and monstrous smile, Akechi did the same in kind. He watched with great satisfaction as the monster that wore his face disappeared into black mist. As his world faded out, he listened to the Phantom Thieves' frantic cries on the other side of the wall of steel between them. He listened to Akira's promise to meet again when everything was all over. He could almost laugh at how naive he was.

After the ship, Akechi found himself in a cell. He resigned himself to whatever sort of afterlife he'd found himself in. It was probably what he'd deserved after everything he did. All the lives he ruined for nothing. All the people he'd betrayed for his ill fated revenge. He decided that he probably deserved worse than sitting alone in a blue cell for all eternity.

It was a strange mix of emotions Akechi felt when he saw Akira again. Disbelief mixed with guilt and joy. He refused to smile, not until he knew it was real. Akira explained everything. The Velvet Room, the malevolent God who had pitted them against each other in some game, what happened to the people of Tokyo. It was a lot to take in. Even more overwhelming was the fact that he wasn't dead, at least not at the moment.

Akechi held nothing back when he fought the Holy Grail. He took the pain of the past three years and gave it back tenfold. He stood with Akira and the others and took back the world. Together, they erased the metaverse. Akechi watched from a distance as the Thieves gave their cat a tearful goodbye. He watched as reality righted itself and was surprised to find that he still had a place in it.

Akechi turned himself in. He had admitted his role in the psychotic breakdowns and implicated every member of the conspiracy he could name. Some speculated that the Phantom Thieves had gotten to him too which wasn't entirely wrong. It just wasn't in the way they thought.

Akira visited Akechi in prison. He came in person until March when he switched to weekly calls. Akechi never understood why. He couldn't fathom how Akira remained determined to stay by his side after everything he'd done. He didn't understand the warm feelings that bloomed in his chest whenever he heard Akira's voice. Still, he never stopped the smile that creeped onto his face whenever they spoke. He held onto the feeling, how much different it felt to smile for himself instead of the masses. Instead of Shido and his revenge plot. He preferred smiling for Akira to all of it.


End file.
